Tory MP Rehman Chishti believes that ‘IS’ legitimises the militants’ claim to parts of Iraq and Syria. The BBC has refused his request.

Antonia Filmer London | 11th Jul 2015

As London remembered 7/7 bombings ten years after they took place in 2005, Islamic extremism in Britain has been stealing the headlines. Tory Muslim MP Rehman Chishti led 120 Members of Parliament to write an open letter to the BBC, objecting to the term "Islamic State" used in broadcasting. They believe that this legitimises the militants' claim to parts of Iraq and Syria. Chishti says, "For a state to exist it must have legal and international recognition as well as a defined sovereign territory." Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the head of the BBC refused to drop the term, suggesting that any other name for what everyone else calls a terrorist group would be "pejorative" and that the BBC needed to maintain its impartial stance. Prime Minister David Cameron, who calls the enemy ISIL, said, "I wish the BBC would stop calling it Islamic State because it is not an Islamic State...it is an appalling barbarous regime."

Some Muslim groups and individuals have reproached media and Westminster as they feel the headlines victimise the whole community. They have been reassured that the enemy is not Islam or Muslims, who generally fit beautifully into British civil society, but the enemy is terrorism. Unfortunately, the majority of terrorist plots in UK have been planned by British born Muslim residents. There are several thousand individuals in the UK who support violent extremism and are engaged in Islamist extremist activity. Young Muslims are being radicalised online by increasingly sophisticated media operations based in the Middle East and Afghanistan. The apparently charismatic preachers with a warped perception and a sense of grievance towards the West seduce the impressionable to rally under a banner of violence.

The threat is two-fold, large numbers British nationals who have fought for extremist groups in Syria continue to return to the UK, increasing the risk of terrorist attacks. Some may organise attacks under direction from Syria or on their own initiative or they might radicalise others to do the same. Other "lone actors" are usually inspired and motivated by the extremist ideological material available online.

The Counter-Terrorism Division of the Crown Prosecution Service concluded 15 cases in 2014 that related to possession of bomb making or illegal extremist materials, planning an atrocity and even murder. The majority of cases resulted in imprisonment, with the other three in detention/custody and fined.